Oxford Prep board selects Swanner as leader

Andrew Swanner has been named executive director of the proposed Oxford Preparatory High School.

In a prepared statement, board chairman Shawn Spence said, “The board voted unanimously to offer Mr. Andrew Swanner the position and is confident that he is best suited to lead the school. He has shown himself to be instrumental in the charter application process, location selection and the implementation of our marketing effort.”

Swanner is one of the founders of the school and led the writing of the charter application.

He has been on the faculty of J.F. Webb High School for seven years, teaching civics, economics and advanced placement government. He has also served as chairman of the social studies department, a member of the school improvement team and coach of the junior varsity boys basketball team.

Swanner earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Coastal Carolina University and is currently enrolled in the Add-On Licensure in School Administration program at Appalachian State University.

“I am excited about the opportunity to lead the first charter high school in the area,” Swanner said in a prepared statement released by the board of directors. “I look forward to growing as a school leader, as our student enrollment grows each year.”

Swanner and the board will hold several community meetings over the next few weeks to describe the school’s mission to families of current eighth-grade students. Those are the students who will be eligible to apply for admission to the school when it opens in the fall.

Meetings have been scheduled in Oxford, Creedmoor and Henderson over the next two-plus weeks.

The first is in Oxford on Thursday night at 7 in the large meeting room of the Thornton Library. The second is Tuesday, Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the South Library Branch in Creedmoor.

The third meeting is in Henderson on Thursday, Jan. 31, at 7 p.m. in the Farm Bureau room of Perry Memorial Library.

In September, the State Board of Education approved Oxford Prep as an independent public charter high school. The school will open with 100 ninth-grade students this August and add 100 ninth-graders each year until it reaches a grades 9-12 enrollment of 400.

The school is considering leasing a site on the Oxford Loop Road. Until a permanent facility is built, the school plans to operate in modular units.